Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 621 Severe Treatment

Songjiang Mansion.

The news that the Yang family, which had called the shots in Songjiang, had fallen overnight made the people of Songjiang extremely excited. At the same time, the news that the army had entered the city and swept away the officialdom of Songjiang also shocked the officials and gentry in Jiangnan.

There was no news about this matter before, and the officials did not receive any information at all. This shows that the emperor's distrust of the officials in the south of the Yangtze River was beyond words.

The people of Songjiang had suffered from Yang Zhongliang for a long time. Now when they heard that Yang Zhongliang was arrested and the emperor himself was visiting Songjiang, the people were immediately in an uproar. Countless people held petitions and knelt outside the emperor's palace, begging for redress.

Meng Jun felt very uncomfortable when he heard the cries of the people. The people's demands were not high, just two words: fairness. However, it was so difficult to actually implement these two words.

Meng Jun ordered people to appease the people and arranged for people to collect the petitions. After careful screening, he found that more than 90% of them were lawsuits against Yang Zhongliang, officials of all ranks in Songjiang Prefecture, as well as yamen runners, petty officials, and some local gentry.

At this time, Meng Jun was listening to Lu Ping's report. Yang Zhongliang had committed three major crimes. First, when Yang Zhongliang became rich, he used Yang En's name to threaten Songjiang officials. After Zhou Wentong granted the land to Yang Zhongliang, Yang Zhongliang was involved in many lives when he built a shop.

The second is to bribe officials and steal commercial taxes from the imperial Maritime Customs.

The third is that he is suspected of murdering an imperial official.

As for other miscellaneous cases of oppressing the people, there were thousands of them. Of course, many of them were not done by Yang Zhongliang himself, but by his family members and servants who were dependent on Yang Zhongliang.

Meng Jun said coldly: "Whatever Yang Zhongliang did was punishable by death. Have all the officials involved in the Yang Zhongliang case been arrested?"

Lu Ping nodded and said, "Your Majesty, they have all been controlled."

At this time, Lu Ping asked in a somewhat tentative tone: "Your Majesty, there are many officials and merchants involved in this incident, some of whom only had some business dealings with Yang Zhongliang. Should these people be dealt with more severely or leniently?"

Yang En was the most important counselor when Meng Jun started his career. Although with the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the Donglin Party had long become a thing of the past, those people were still there. After Donglin, a hidden Jiangnan faction emerged. Regardless of whether Yang En was willing or not, these people took the initiative to move closer to Yang En.

Therefore, when Yang Zhongliang used the banner of Yang En, not only the officials in Songjiang, but also the officials from all over Jiangnan would give face to Yang Zhongliang. However, the strength of the Jiangnan faction is now too strong. In the court, it has an overwhelming advantage when facing officials from the north or southwest.

Therefore, Meng Jun decided to punish Yang Zhongliang severely, not only because Yang Zhongliang was too evil, but he also had another purpose, which was to strike at the forces in the south of the Yangtze River.

Thinking of this, Meng Jun said in a deep voice: "Business dealings with the Yang family alone are not enough to convict him. We still have to start from the fact that Yang Zhongliang formed a clique for personal gain and deceived everyone and everyone to do evil!"

When Lu Ping heard this, he was startled. He knew that the emperor was going to have surgery.

When leaving, Lu Ping sighed in his heart, he was obviously a kind person, and harmony brings wealth was his creed, but the emperor either asked him to carry out reforms with Wu Lengzi, or asked him to be the bad guy and be a sharp knife.

Under Meng Jun's explicit instructions, Lu Ping had no choice but to do as the emperor wished, not to mention that he had no right to object.

Faced with irrefutable evidence and Lu Ping's torture, some of Yang Zhongliang's confidants confessed everything they knew.

This included instructing his subordinates to burn to death two families who refused to move, secretly knocking out the governor of Songjiang and throwing him into the river, and taking people to Yangzhou to assassinate a minor official who wanted to go to the capital to file a complaint. All these things were ordered by Yang Zhongliang.

Under Lu Ping's trial, many officials and gentry involved confessed truthfully that they had accepted bribes from Yang Zhongliang and protected him by concealing the evidence of his crimes.

In just half a month, all the officials, gentry and merchants involved in the case were arrested and brought to justice. Songjiang Prefecture was the hardest hit area, and many officials in other parts of Jiangnan, such as several prefectures in Zhejiang and southern and northern Jiangsu, were implicated in the case.

In this case, Yang Zhongliang, Zhou Wentong, and other officials, yamen runners, petty clerks, gentry, merchants, and the main culprits and accomplices totaled 1,362 people.

Meng Jun ordered that 48 main culprits be sentenced to death, their property be confiscated, and compensation be paid to the victims. More than 300 family members of the main culprit were all exiled to Ningguta area. More than 1,300 accomplices were dismissed, demoted, exiled, or had their property confiscated and heavily fined according to the severity of their crimes.

Meng Jun ordered that the forty-eight people sentenced to death be moved to the capital. He wanted to behead them one by one in front of all the officials in the capital.

In addition, Zhou Wentong and sixteen other officials of Songjiang Prefecture, as well as the Songjiang government's legal advisors, yamen runners, and petty officials, were all sentenced to exile in Ningguta.

Qin Yunwei, the Qingluan Guard stationed in Songjiang, Wu Xiao, the director of the Maritime Customs, and most of their subordinates were sentenced to death by beheading, and the rest, along with their families, were exiled to Ningguta.

Thousands of people have been gathered in Yangzhou from all over Jiangnan. These people will meet in Yangzhou and will then be sent to the Liaodong border.

Meng Jun then sent someone to urgently order Gu Yanwu of the Propaganda Department to publish a month's worth of articles in the newspapers during this period, encouraging and calling on people from all walks of life to report corrupt officials, bullies, evil officials, and hooligans.

Meng Jun also required that the newly established inspection team of the court must include the crackdown on ruffians, evil officials or people like Yang Zhongliang who use business as a means of doing evil as their primary targets.

Just when Meng Jun was doing great things in Songjiang, Yang En's letter of self-resignation was delivered to Meng Jun.

Meng Jun had complicated feelings towards Yang En. On the one hand, Yang En helped him a lot when Meng Jun started his career. When Meng Jun first attacked Suzhou, Yang Can, the most critical hero, was also successfully persuaded by Yang En.

It can be said that if there was no Yang En, perhaps Meng Jun would not have had the opportunity to attack Suzhou, and perhaps Meng Jun would not have been able to achieve empire now.

On the other hand, the crime committed by Yang Zhongliang was too serious, and Yang En was too deeply involved with the Jiangnan faction. The power of Jiangnan officials was growing stronger and stronger. Meng Jun had decided to attack the Jiangnan faction, but this would inevitably hit Yang En.

Although no matter how they investigated, Yang Zhongliang and his followers all said that Yang En was not involved, but Yang En could not escape the crime of negligence.

But Meng Jun was still hesitant about how to deal with Yang En. He certainly couldn't kill Yang En. Even if he dismissed Yang En, it would be a self-defeating act for Meng Jun.